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THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2009   
Vol 2.28   
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Heavy Metal
Precious Metals Law Passed in Orange County

PINE BUSH � Following a string of burglaries in the Town of Crawford a couple of years ago, Dan Depew, Country Representative of the 18th District, started work on passing a law regarding the sale of jewelry and similar valuables with precious metal content, by jewelers and pawnshops.

On July 1, the Orange County legislature passed the new legislation. Under this law, anyone who has a business that buys secondhand jewelry � gemstones and precious metals � would have to have a license from the county and undergo a background check. In addition, two crucial rules apply. To sell jewelry to a store, you have to be over the age of 18 and you have to have photo ID for the store owner to see and if they want, to record. Then, the store must hold the items for 15 days before selling them.

Dan Depew put it this way. "You can't just ride into town, stay in a motel, and announce that you're buying gold. Because, now you have stay in the county a while, and you have to register and undergo that background check."

Talking about the passage of the law, Depew said he was "a bit surprised, but really happy that after a year and a half of working on it, we got it through with almost no objections. But, of course, it was a collaborative effort. We worked with the Democrats and Independents as well as the Republicans, and we got a lot of information out so that everyone could do their research. I think it was important that this wasn't a partisan initiative but a legislative initiative."

Depew noted that the law was not overly oppressive on business people, but was needed.

"Because of the robberies we were having. In a rural district like this, you just can't have a cop on every street. The other thing was most of these robberies happened while people were out of town. So now, with the 15 day wait period, they have a chance to get back home, and communicate with the police, if they've been burgled, so their property has a chance of being recovered."

Depew added, "People who own pawnshops and jewelry stores have to be in good standing. They can't have a felony record."

Discussing the new law, Chief McCann of the Town of Crawford Police Department said, "We welcome this law, because up 'til now, we really didn't have anything on the books."

"Another key thing to note is that Putnam, Westchester, and Rockland counties have all had laws similar to this on their books for almost twenty years," said Depew.

Now that Orange has joined them, the county will no longer offer a convenient market for thieves coming in from other counties.

There are still some further amendments being discussed.

"One thing that's under discussion would allow a store owner to take a digital photo of any item and use that to register it with the sheriff's department. That would save the storeowner from having to keep a whole lot of written records. It would also give the sheriff's department a handy visual record of all these jewelry items."

Chief McCann said, "I think it can be a win-win for everyone. If businesses work it into their practices, then they can be sure that the police know they're on the right side of things. Any business that knowingly bought stolen material and sold it as quick as they could would be identified. It would show conduct and that would mean investigators would be looking at them."

McCann also made the point that residents can take steps to protect themselves. "Everyone [should maintain] a good record of the piece of jewelry, or property of any sort that has a value, or that they think is important to them. A photo is good, but if there's some marker on the property that is known only to them, so they can ID that piece of jewelry, then that's a great help to us in recovering things."





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